The role of clean intermittent catheterization in the treatment for detrusor underactivity.

OBJECTIVE

To study the influence of clean intermittent catheterization (CIC) on the lower urinary tract function in patients with urinary retention (UR) due to detrusor underactivity (DU).

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A longitudinal study was carried out on 49 patients (28 men, 21 women) of mean age 55years, who underwent CIC for UR secondary to DU. The mean CIC frequency was 3.15 times/day. Patients' clinical data were collected, and they underwent urodynamic study before and after CIC, with a mean interval of 4years. Fisher's exact test was used for the analysis of categorical variables and Student's t test for parametric variables. The level of significance was set at 0.05 for a two-tailed test.

RESULTS

The second urodynamic study showed a significantly increased bladder compliance, the Bladder Outlet Obstruction Index (BOOI) and the Bladder Contractility Index (BCI) also increased but without reaching statistical significance. There was a significantly higher percentage of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and acontractile detrusor cases among the group of patients whose BCI improved after CIC, with significantly lower CIC time.

CONCLUSIONS

CIC improved bladder compliance in the patients of our series. The BCI improved in BPH patients and in patients with acontractile detrusor.